Lessons from digital spaces: opportunities and challenges for widening participation through online learning' A special issue of the Journal of ...

Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning
                  ISSN: 1466-6529

‘Lessons from digital spaces: opportunities and
  challenges for widening participation through
                 online learning’

  A special issue of the Journal of Widening
     Participation and Lifelong Learning

                Call for Papers

Background
The global pandemic wrought turmoil across many sectors, with specific
challenges impacting students and educators. The necessity to continue learning
drove many universities to rapidly move all classes to digital and online fora. In
this challenging context, new opportunities arose through extended investment of
time and resources designed to foster online engagement and enhance online
learning. However, this shift further exposed issues of inequality around
technological access, drawing sharp focus toward issues of participation and
pedagogy, including digital literacy, digital inclusion and digital poverty. It is
timely to reflect upon the opportunities and challenges presented in order to
support quality online learning for students from widening participation (WP)
backgrounds.

Purpose
This special edition invites academics and practitioners involved in designing,
delivering and supporting online learning to share insights from research and
praxis. We particularly encourage student-focused papers, rather than those
focused on technological implementation. Through a focus on the learner
experience, this special edition hopes to identify ways to manage challenges and
better support access, engagement, and inclusion in digital spaces. Our goal is to
further quality online learning with a focus on students from WP backgrounds, and
broader benefits for inclusive practice for all.

Themes include:

   •   Inclusive online and blended learning
   •   Widening participation through student access and engagement in online
       spaces
   •   Exploring new modes, including synchronous and hybrid online teaching
   •   Creating a sense of identity and belonging for all within digital learning
       communities
   •   Critical application of pedagogy through digital spaces and learning
       technologies
   •   Creative pedagogies and new assessment models in online spaces
   •   Insights around digital poverty and strategies for digital equity
   •   Lifelong learning through empowering digital literacy

Submissions to the journal are welcomed from academics, practitioners and
professionals in the fields of education, sociology, community development, social
policy and related disciplines. If you have any journal related queries please
contact us at WPLL-journal@open.ac.uk

Guest Editor
Jennifer Stokes, Senior Lecturer at the University of South Australia, one of our
journal’s experienced international Editorial Board members will guest edit this
special edition and will draw on the expertise of our valued peer-reviewers and
colleagues. If you wish to discuss your article prior to submission please contact
the Guest Editor Jennifer Stokes at WPLL-journal@open.ac.uk.

Guidance for authors contributing to the journal
Each edition of the journal consists of a section of main articles followed by
sections devoted to innovative practice, research/methodology notes and updates,
discussion pieces and book reviews. All contributions must fulfil the following
criteria:

   •   Articles must directly address the core interests of the journal; i.e. access,
       widening participation and lifelong learning.
   •   Articles should provide a clear theoretical rationale for the work discussed
       rather than providing just a descriptive account.
   •   Work should be contextualised in order to make it understandable to an
       international audience.
   •   Innovative Practice articles should be descriptive as well as maintaining
       critical reflection, and include coverage of problems encountered and
       solutions found in establishing a specific project.
   •   Articles will be considered for publication only if they have not been
       published, submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere; any exceptions
       to this should be clearly indicated at the time of submission.
   •   A brief abstract must be submitted, highlighting the key issues and focus
       points of the article. Key words for the article allow a more specialised peer
       reviewer to be selected and therefore should be included in the submission.

We are pleased to accept completed book reviews, offers to undertake book reviews
and suggestions of books to review, within the topic of the special issue.

Specifications for articles for the Main Section
   •   Articles for the main section should be research-based and have a clear
       theoretical rationale.
   •   Each article will be reviewed by the editors and sent to a number of
       referees for blind peer review.
   •   Articles will be accepted or rejected, or revisions suggested, based on their
       recommendations.
   •   Articles should be between 4,000 and 6,000 words and associated abstracts
       should be between 100 and 200 words in length.

Specifications for the Innovative Practice Section
   •   Submissions to this section of the Journal will be peer reviewed by the
       editors and are selected for their contribution to innovative practice.
   •   They should be a critical evaluation of practice and include references to
       appropriate literature.
   •   These articles should be between 1,500 and 3,000 words in length.

Specifications for other article types
   •   Submissions to this section of the Journal will be peer reviewed by the
       editors.
   •   Research methods articles will be selected for their contribution to the
       analysis and development of research methodology, in the fields of
       widening participation and lifelong learning;
   •   Research notes and updates provide an opportunity to present interim
       and final research findings in a quick and accessible way, to inform
       practitioners and researchers in the widening participation and lifelong
       learning fields.
   •   Discussion pieces offer an opportunity to present informed opinion and
       reflection on current research and policy developments.
   •   These articles should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length

House Style
Full details about the house style including referencing formats can be found on our
journal web site, where there is also a useful Microsoft Word template which should
be used for all articles submitted. Click here for the full WPLL Journal Guidance.

Timeline for submissions to this special edition of WPLL

All relevant articles which are submitted to us by 30th September 2021 will be
considered for inclusion in the June 2022 special edition of the journal.

Papers will be accepted from the time of circulating the call until the deadline.
Papers submitted ahead of the deadline will be reviewed earlier than the timetable
below. Any papers received after the deadline will be considered for inclusion in a
future edition.

Deadline for submission of articles            Thursday 30th September 2021

Peer-review and decision making process        October 2021 – February 2022

Final revisions and editor decision            By end of March 2022

WPLL Editorial Board meeting                   April 2022

Post Board revisions                           April 2022

Copy edit, final proof read                    May 2022

Publication                                    June 2022